Left And Right Brain Balancing Improve Child Intelligence...

Face it, the older the age when our memories tend to increasingly lose sharpness. We begin to forget things, like names of people, forget to put something or we have to do the job. But old does not mean your brain is also becoming increasingly blunt. For brain and memory can always be honed even stay sharp, here are some tips:

Step I: LEFT BRAIN TRAIN

Your left brain is working to regulate the ability in reasoning, language, writing, logic and arithmetic. Left-brain memory are short term (short term memory). If there is damage to the left brain, there will be disruption in terms of functions of speech, language and mathematics. To maintain the capacity of your left brain, try to learn a new language or do puzzles games.

Step 2: RIGHT BRAIN TRAIN

Right brain function is to handle the process of human creative thinking. Usual right brain identified about creativity, imagination, shape or space, emotion, music and color. Their memories are long right brain (long term memory). The way it works is not well structured and tend not to think about things that are too detailed. If there is damage to the right brain in diseases such as stroke or brain tumor, then the disturbed brain function is the ability of visual and emotional. To maintain the sharpness of your right brain practice playing a musical instrument, sing or make crafts.

Step 3: WHOLE BRAIN TRAIN

Learning meditation
By doing your meditation can reduce stress, overcome anxiety is excessive, and activate the control centers of the brain for happiness and satisfaction.

Train Memory capacity
You remember as a kid, a lot of things you should know by heart. The sharpness of your memory will increase if you always train memory skills.

Participate in social activities
Having a solid schedule of social activities which are believed to make the brain work more actively and to reduce deterioration of the brain.

In addition to genetic factors, ability and intelligence of a child can be trained and taught in a way to do the activation in the right brain. Generally, the participants who could be taught by several instructors aged between four to 12 years. Next try doing some activities with your eyes closed.

The kids and even then engaged in various activities ranging from reading and guess the number. There also are reading the holy verses of Al-Quran with eyes closed. Not only that, they ride bikes in a zigzag with eyes closed. All were obtained through focused training.

In addition to training the right brain to the brain's ability, motivation is beneficial for children to generate self-potential and positive character in the child. Currently, a number of activities are offered which aim to improve the ability of children with a variety of methods. In addition to that offered a variety of ways, most important, of course, attention and guidance of the parents of the children themselves.

Communities often assess IQ (intelligence quotient) is equated with intelligence or skill. In fact, IQ only measures a fraction of the skill.

"It was a bright child is a child who can react in a logical and useful to what is experienced in the neighborhood," said Eileen Rachman, a psychologist who is also Director of EXPERD, a human resources consultant at the seminar 10 Ways to Sharpen IQ and EQ (emotional quotient) Child , in Jakarta. At the same seminar also launched a book entitled Optimizing Intelligence Child.

Eileen explained that IQ is a number that is used to describe the thinking person's capacity as compared with the average of others. In general, the average IQ was 100.

"IQ is only used among others, imagined space, see the environment around coherently and find the relationship between one form and other forms. But IQ does not measure creativity, social skills, and wisdom, "he said.

Meanwhile, the intelligence of children seen from the understanding and awareness of what they experienced. Later on in his mind, the experience was transformed into words or numbers. Therefore, Eileen emphasizes the importance of understanding. "Because understanding is a combination of efforts to increase the input through the senses and the knowledge they have," explained Eileen.

How to optimize your child's intelligence? Eileen suggested that parents enhance learning, reading, and repeat. For example, to introduce how to read, the mother helps the child by making a line under words that are important, ask your child to read aloud and explain the meaning of reading.

In addition, parents are also introducing the strategy, making rational decisions, sparked the idea as smoothly as possible, midmapping, increase vocabulary, thinking as he imagined, humor, critical thinking, and play. The goal to balance the left and right brain work, because the structure of the left and right brain hemispheres have different tasks.

Why need to balance the left and right brain work? Eileen said that the child can read fluently with full comprehension, creative writing, spelling, remembering, listening, thinking while at the same or become the champion in a particular sport. All it takes left and right brain coordination with both well trained.

But to balance the left and right brain work can also be through customs. Eileen explained, for example by enjoying the music and the arts, enjoying color, space and shape, value creativity and appreciate the sentiment.

Meanwhile, Dr. Andre Meaza said that during early childhood is the golden period to perform an active process through the process of sensory stimulation for the purpose of forming wiring system. "Stages of early life stages of the child are important because children are able to receive skills and teaching as a basis of knowledge and thought processes."

Andrew also explained, half the child's intellectual development took place prior to entering the age of 4 years. Precisely 17 years of age cognitive development is a cumulative development of the child is born.

According to Andre, 0-4 year olds have the cognitive development of 50%, 30% 4-8 years and 9-17 years at 20%. "It's brain development before age 1 year early, but the maturation of the brain take place after the child is born," he said.

He warned that the influence of early environment on brain development will impact long. Therefore, children who have good environmental stimulation, brain function will develop better.

About Action Research

In the literature, discussion of action research tends to fall into two distinctive camps. The British tradition - especially that linked to education - tends to view action research as research oriented toward the enhancement of direct practice. For example, Carr and Kemmis provide a classic definition: Action research is simply a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own practices, their understanding of these practices, and the situations in which the practices are carried out (Carr and Kemmis 1986: 162). Many people are drawn to this understanding of action research because it is firmly located in the realm of the practitioner - it is tied to self-reflection. As a way of working it is very close to the notion of reflective practice coined by Donald Schön (1983). The second tradition, perhaps more widely approached within the social welfare field - and most certainly the broader understanding in the USA is of action research as 'the systematic collection of information that is designed to bring about social change' (Bogdan and Biklen 1992: 223). Bogdan and Biklen continue by saying that its practitioners marshal evidence or data to expose unjust practices or environmental dangers and recommend actions for change. In many respects, for them, it is linked into traditions of citizen’s action and community organizing. The practitioner is actively involved in the cause for which the research is conducted. For others, it is such commitment is a necessary part of being a practitioner or member of a community of practice. Thus, various projects designed to enhance practice within youth work, for example, such as the detached work reported on by Goetschius and Tash (1967) could be talked of as action research. Origins Kurt Lewin is generally credited as the person who coined the term 'action research': The research needed for social practice can best be characterized as research for social management or social engineering. It is a type of action-research, a comparative research on the conditions and effects of various forms of social action, and research leading to social action. Research that produces nothing but books will not suffice (Lewin 1946, reproduced in Lewin 1948: 202-3) His approach involves a spiral of steps, ‘each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action and fact-finding about the result of the action’ (ibid.: 206). The basic cycle involves the following: This is how Lewin describes the initial cycle: The first step then is to examine the idea carefully in the light of the means available. Frequently more fact-finding about the situation is required. If this first period of planning is successful, two items emerge: namely, “an overall plan” of how to reach the objective and secondly, a decision in regard to the first step of action. Usually this planning has also somewhat modified the original idea. (ibid.: 205) The next step is ‘composed of a circle of planning, executing, and reconnaissance or fact finding for the purpose of evaluating the results of the second step, and preparing the rational basis for planning the third step, and for perhaps modifying again the overall plan’ (ibid.: 206). What we can see here is an approach to research that is oriented to problem-solving in social and organizational settings, and that has a form that parallels Dewey’s conception of learning from experience. The approach, as presented, does take a fairly sequential form – and it is open to literal interpretation. Following it can lead to practice that is ‘correct’ rather than ‘good’ – as we will see. It can also be argued that model itself places insufficient emphasis on analysis at key points. Elliott (1991: 70), for example, believed that the basic model allows those who use it to assume that the ‘general idea’ can be fixed in advance, ‘that “reconnaissance” is merely fact-finding, and that “implementation” is a fairly straightforward process’. As might be expected there was some questioning as to whether this was ‘real’ research. There were questions around action research’s partisan nature – the fact that it served particular causes. The decline and rediscovery of action research Action research did suffer a decline in favour during the 1960s because of its association with radical political activism (Stringer 2007: 9). There were, and are, questions concerning its rigour, and the training of those undertaking it. However, as Bogdan and Biklen (1992: 223) point out, research is a frame of mind – ‘a perspective that people take toward objects and activities’. Once we have satisfied ourselves that the collection of information is systematic, and that any interpretations made have a proper regard for satisfying truth claims, then much of the critique aimed at action research disappears. In some of Lewin’s earlier work on action research (e.g. Lewin and Grabbe 1945) there was a tension between providing a rational basis for change through research, and the recognition that individuals are constrained in their ability to change by their cultural and social perceptions, and the systems of which they are a part. Having ‘correct knowledge’ does not of itself lead to change, attention also needs to be paid to the ‘matrix of cultural and psychic forces’ through which the subject is constituted (Winter 1987: 48). Subsequently, action research has gained a significant foothold both within the realm of community-based, and participatory action research; and as a form of practice oriented to the improvement of educative encounters (e.g. Carr and Kemmis 1986). Exhibit 1: Stringer on community-based action research A fundamental premise of community-based action research is that it commences with an interest in the problems of a group, a community, or an organization. Its purpose is to assist people in extending their understanding of their situation and thus resolving problems that confront them…. Community-based action research is always enacted through an explicit set of social values. In modern, democratic social contexts, it is seen as a process of inquiry that has the following characteristics: • It is democratic, enabling the participation of all people. • It is equitable, acknowledging people’s equality of worth. • It is liberating, providing freedom from oppressive, debilitating conditions. • It is life enhancing, enabling the expression of people’s full human potential. (Stringer 1999: 9-10) The action research process works through three basic phases: Look - building a picture and gathering information. When evaluating we define and describe the problem to be investigated and the context in which it is set. We also describe what all the participants (educators, group members, managers etc.) have been doing. Think – interpreting and explaining. When evaluating we analyse and interpret the situation. We reflect on what participants have been doing. We look at areas of success and any deficiencies, issues or problems. Act – resolving issues and problems. In evaluation we judge the worth, effectiveness, appropriateness, and outcomes of those activities. We act to formulate solutions to any problems. (Stringer 1999: 18; 43-44;160) The use of action research to deepen and develop classroom practice has grown into a strong tradition of practice (one of the first examples being the work of Stephen Corey in 1949). For some there is an insistence that action research must be collaborative and entail groupwork. Action research is a form of collective self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own social or educational practices, as well as their understanding of those practices and the situations in which the practices are carried out… The approach is only action research when it is collaborative, though it is important to realise that action research of the group is achieved through the critically examined action of individual group members. (Kemmis and McTaggart 1988: 5-6) Just why it must be collective is open to some question and debate (Webb 1996), but there is an important point here concerning the commitments and orientations of those involved in action research. Conclusion One of the legacies Kurt Lewin left us is the ‘action research spiral’ – and with it there is the danger that action research becomes little more than a procedure. It is a mistake, according to McTaggart (1996: 248) to think that following the action research spiral constitutes ‘doing action research’. He continues, ‘Action research is not a ‘method’ or a ‘procedure’ for research but a series of commitments to observe and problematize through practice a series of principles for conducting social enquiry’. It is his argument that Lewin has been misunderstood or, rather, misused. When set in historical context, while Lewin does talk about action research as a method, he is stressing a contrast between this form of interpretative practice and more traditional empirical-analytic research. The notion of a spiral may be a useful teaching device – but it is all too easily to slip into using it as the template for practice (McTaggart 1996: 249).